Title

Author

Date of Award

Degree Name

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Dan Fleming III

Second Advisor

Dr. Alexandra Pekarovicova

Third Advisor

Dr. Massood Zandi Atashbar

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The increasing demand for miniaturized electronic devices has increased the need for rechargeable micro-power sources. Although lithium and lithium ion batteries have been utilized in these applications since the late 1990s, other energy harvesting technologies, such as thermal, mechanical, and solar, are now being used to augment batteries to enable systems to be self-powered. However, the lifetime of any battery is finite, which may be a major problem when the application is in a permanent structure or medical implant device. For power or significant energy storage applications, printed multilayer capacitors or supercapacitors are being explored as an enhancement, or replacement of micro-batteries.

The printing of multilayer capacitors offers an inexpensive manufacturing process for these devices. Though the ability to print supercapacitor electrodes, supercapacitors, and batteries on rigid and flexible substrates has been demonstrated, the ability to print self-supported multilayer capacitors or supercapacitors has not yet been reported. This study focused on the feasibility of the fabrication and testing of self-supporting screen-printed multilayer capacitors.